Posts Tagged ‘Networking’

A couple of weeks ago I listened to several people discuss the topic of networking with others. The featured guest in the Google Hangout video chat was Stacy Zapar who happens to have the distinction of being the most connected woman on LinkedIn. She shared her experiences and insights regarding networking and is obviously very knowledgeable about the importance of it in the field of recruiting and talent management. You can view that one-hour video and review the archive of the accompanying Twitter chat here.

During the discussion, the focus was on how to build a personal and professional network in a way that is strategic, thoughtful, and leads toward helping accomplish goals and meet needs in the future as they arise. I didn’t realize until after the discussion that the title for the chat – “Dig a Well Before You’re Thirsty” – is based on a nearly identical book title by Harvey Mackay published in 1999. After some further exploration, it seems like a good investment of someone’s time to read that book, especially if you feel you could use some assistance in building a network for professional and career reasons.

Sometimes, though, phrases jump out at us and immediately have application far beyond the original context. Such is the case with this book title. It’s true that I weekly pursue expanding my professional contacts in the field of enterprise social networking, especially through the weekly Twitter #ESNchat I host. But when I hear the phrase “Dig a well before you’re thirsty,” my mind immediately goes to other areas of life and the general advice to be prepared, to plan ahead, to not wait until the last moment to get things done, etc.

It reminds me that if I want, for example, to have a decent nest egg for retirement, I have to be contributing and investing wisely for many years before that elusive date. It means that if I have aspirations to accomplish larger goals in the future, I must be willing to lay the groundwork and put in place the stepping stones that are necessary now in order to reach those goals later.

Dig a well before you’re thirsty. That sounds to me like a phrase worth remembering and a philosophy worth living.

Ask me what the ROI of social media is for me personally, and I’ll tell you that it was $10,000 for me this week. Why? Because of what happened related to the 150-year-old, 14.5 foot circumference tree in our back yard, shown here with my son, Jason, giving it one last hug before we have to cut it down in a few days. Actually, it was my friends via social media that saved me the money – not social media itself which was the vehicle of communication that made it all possible.

Here’s what happened…

We had a storm come through several nights ago that took out a major section of the tree, fortunately falling away from the house and only doing minor damage to the garage and garden. Upon inspection by the arborist, though, it was discovered that the tree is not in good health. With the major limb gone, you could step down into the center of the tree nearly waist high. The squirrels had been living in style up there for some while, lining their tree house with plastic and even a t-shirt they stole from someone, but we had no idea about the extent of the interior damage until the gaping hole of a missing 25-inch-diameter limb revealed it. We hoped to never see the day when we had to remove such a natural masterpiece, but there was no avoiding it upon inspection.

We’ve used the same outstanding, trustworthy, yet expensive arborist for the 25 years we’ve lived in this house. Taking care of the tree with regular grooming and care was something we willingly did for the past quarter century – a mere one-sixth of the tree’s time on this earth. (I guess that puts its origins somewhere around the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.) We got an unofficial ballpark estimate from our usual arborist on removing the tree when he was here removing the downed limb. I was quite stunned at the approximate $6000 price tag to remove the whole tree! I wasn’t prepared for that.

I didn’t mind paying top dollar for proper care of a tree to extend its life, but I wasn’t about to hand over $6000 to cut one down without competitive bids. The problem? I have no firsthand knowledge of any other company in town and could easily make a very bad decision we might regret.

Enter social media.

I posted a pic of the downed limb on Facebook and a note about having to remove the tree along with the current bid we had. I didn’t ask others for referrals. In fact, I’m embarrassed to admit that it didn’t even occur to me at that point to do so. Yet, my network of friends took over and started posting publicly, privately and sending me text messages of companies they had successfully used and highly recommended. My wife, Linda, did some Better Business Bureau research on all the names and narrowed it to three possible, reputable companies.

Here comes the unbelievable part. The bids on removing the monster tree ranged form a low of $3200 to a high of nearly $12,000! That’s a crazy disparity. Want to know the funny part? The highest bidder was also going to take down part of our backyard fence to get his equipment there and was not going to put the fence back up! Thanks, but no thanks.

We actually got two bids from each company – one just for the backyard tree and one that also included a very large 70-year-old oak in our front yard that has been falling apart little by little annually and isn’t safe, either. The bids for taking down both trees ranged from $6000 to $16,000 – a stunning difference.

We ended up going with the lowest bidder. Could something go wrong? Sure. Could we end up regretting our decision? Possibly, but not likely. We’re confident we made the right choice and it wasn’t made solely on price. I’ll let you know if we learn otherwise.

Without social media, I may never have known about the company we’re using. I may have asked a few close friends for recommendations, but no network of hundreds of people would’ve known about my need without social media. And the best thing about it was that I didn’t even ask for help. I just posted the situation and the info started pouring in.

This is the reality of how social media works today. People do not simply go to the companies selling products and services and make an isolated decision based only on info provided by those doing the selling. We have public conversations in our personal networks and those conversations influence our buying decisions. Companies that understand that will choose to be a part of the conversations, helping to influence them and earning the right to be chosen. Companies who don’t get it will continue to mistakenly think that their marketing message is the one the people listen to the most. It isn’t. We care more about the opinion and recommendations of our friends than we do about what we hear from businesses.

What is the ROI of social media? For me personally this week, it’s $10,000. Who knows what next week will bring?

When we hear the phrase “net worth,” it is almost always in reference to someone’s financial position. That is, what is the value of someone’s assets minus liabilities? While that is a good thing to know for oneself, I believe the phrase can be used in a new way now that personal networks are such a vital part of our lives.

The idea for this post came from seeing a tweet by Dan Pontefract (@DPontefract) on January 25 that said, “my network *is* my net worth.” The tweet linked to the press release “Most Expect to Get New Job by Networking” from Right Management, the workforce consulting experts within ManpowerGroup. The release discusses survey results which showed that 50% of respondents expect to find their next job via networking, while 22% expect to do so through a job board, 10% through an agency/recruiter, 8% by directly approaching businesses and 1% through a newspaper or periodical (how are newspapers still in existence?).

As someone who puts great value in his personal network of personal and professional contacts, I resonate with the survey results and am surprised, frankly, that the 50% figure wasn’t higher. Give it a year or two and I’m confident it will be much higher.

As I think about the value of a personal network, the primary benefit for me is not for job searching. It is for learning. For the past few years, the primary way I have learned is by following key people on Twitter who are leaders in fields I care about. The blogs, reports, white papers, surveys, infographics, books and articles these people link to, their insights shared, and the incredible opportunity to have direct online conversations with them make the world of knowledge available to everyone who chooses to take advantage of the social technologies at their fingertips.

Learning professionals talk about personal learning networks as sources for individuals to learn via informal connections with others. If you’re interested, grab your favorite beverage, do a Google search on the topic and spend some time perusing the 147 million search results on the term.

Personal networks consist of connections you have with people you see in person as well as others online you may never have met face to face. Personal networks are not the same thing as online social networks, although the people you connect with online are part of (and perhaps the largest part of) your personal network.

I encourage everyone to continually work on expanding their personal network – their “net worth” – both for the value you can bring to them and for the opportunities such connections bring your way. Don’t expand your networks just to take without giving, though. That’s against the spirit of a true network where each person plays an important part. Expand because you have a thirst for knowledge, a desire to help as many others as possible, a yearning to expand your horizons through rich communication with others around the world, and you will find that you end up gaining as much or more than you give in the process.

You may have additional reasons for and uses of a personal network beyond the professional and learning focus that most interests me. Regardless of your motivation, I encourage you to pause and ask yourself “What is my ‘net worth’? What can you do today to increase it?”

While waiting to begin speaking at a conference session several days ago, a man sitting near the front came up to me and said something like “Well, it’s strange that we would finally meet some place like this.” I said “And you are…?” He turned his name badge around where I could read it and it was a fellow employee from my company in Louisville – one whom I had been on numerous phone calls with but had never actually met in person. Indeed it was odd that our first in-person meeting would not be in our own city but on the other side of the continent – a consequence of the prevalence of virtual meetings.

While at the conference, I finally had the chance to meet in person a number of people from the company that invited me to come speak. I remember saying to a couple of them, “I need to just hold up an empty picture frame in front of people’s faces this week to be more likely to recognize them based on the online head shots I’ve seen for so long.”

Online communications and social media have changed the frequency and the need to meet together in person – for good or bad. This week, however, it was a lot of fun to be able to spend time face to face with these people. It deepened the relationships.

My career is currently 100% centered around social media, but it is important to occasionally set the devices aside and have some time together with others. It shouldn’t all be done online.

Since this week’s trip was to a major annual technology conference with over 20,000 people registered, it is no surprise that everyone had their favorite devices with them – mostly tablets and smart phones and a few laptops for old-timers. The irony did not escape me while walking past large groups of people that at this tremendous event ripe with in-person networking opportunities, most had their heads buried in devices where they were carrying on conversations with others not present. That’s not necessarily a good thing.

Leap year lesson #239 is Know when to network in person instead of online.